Saturday, April 4, 2015

Climate Leadership from the Head of the Episcopal Church

Katherine Jefferts Schori is the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, she believes that those who deny the science of climate change are both "blind" and "immoral." Jefferts Schori is not only a religious authority, she also has some serious scientific credentials. She holds a doctorate in oceanography and worked as a marine biologist before becoming a priest.

At a March 24 Episcopal event in Los Angeles called The Climate Change Crisis Forum, Jefferts Schori delivered a speech in which she said, "this planet is overheating, its climate is changing, and the
residents are sick, suffering, and dying."

As reported by the Huffington Post, Jefferts Schori said, “We are making war on the integrity of this
planet. We were planted in this garden to care for it, literally to have dominion over its creatures. Dominion means caring for our island home.” She went on to say that humanity must make a "life and death" decision and she added that the window of opportunity to do so, "will not last long."
As the highest ranking woman in the Anglican Communion, Jefferts Schori is the most powerful female in all of Christianity. She oversees 2.5 million members of the Episcopal church in 17 countries. She has shown moral
leadership on climate change, as have other other female faith leaders.>

The Episcopal Church is among a number of religious groups that are engaging environmental stewardship. The Episcopal Ecological Network has been building grassroots efforts and providing educational resources since 1986.
In 2012, the church partnered with interfaith environmental nonprofit GreenFaith to launch a certification program to make Episcopal church facilities more environmentally friendly. The church is currently redoubling its efforts to lead the charge against climate change.

Also on March 24th, the Episcopal church broadcast a 90-minute webcast to discuss both the regional impacts of atmospheric warming and the moral implications of those impacts. The Climate Change Crisis Forum marked the start of the 30 Days of Action challenge for people to learn about and advocate for environmental change. Over the course of the initiative, which ends on Earth Day, April 22, participants will receive daily emails designed to help them reduce their carbon footprint, spread awareness about climate initiatives, as well as lobby government and international corporations to fight climate change. As explained on the church's website, “Focusing on environmental change on a personal, community and global level for 30 days can help Episcopalians proclaim a commitment to caring for God’s creation.”

A large number of faith groups are divesting from fossil fuels because they see divestment as a moral
imperative. However, as explained in an interview with The
Guardian, Jefferts Schori is not onboard. “If you divest you lose any direct ability to influence the course of a corporation’s behavior,” she said. “I think most pragmatists realise that we can’t close the spigot on the oil wells and close the coal mines immediately without some other energy source to shift to.”

Jefferts Schori believes that we are called to put our scientific understanding into practice. “Episcopalians understand the life of the mind is a gift of God and to deny the best of current knowledge is not using the gifts God has given you,” she said. However, she concedes that, “It’s hard work when you have a climate denier who will not see the reality of scientific truth.” She went on to say that ignoring science and denying climate change is, “a very blind position.”

As explained in another Global Warming is Real article, morality can play a salient role in marshaling the human resources necessary to win the war on climate change.

The Episcopal bishop described action on climate change as a “moral issue", particularly as it impacts on the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. She compared climate action to the civil rights movement and she explained that the evangelical community is increasingly involved in activism due in large part to their understanding of climate impacts on the
poor.

“We are meant to love God and what God has created and to love our neighbors as ourselves,” she said in her March 24th speech. “Jesus insists that those who will enjoy abundant life are those who care for all neighbors, especially the ‘least of these’ — the hungry and thirsty, the imprisoned and sick — and that must include all the species that God has nurtured on this planet.”

While she acknowledges that some are resistant to climate action for political reasons, she suggested that denial is "immoral" regardless of the motivation. “The Judeo-Christian tradition has always called these motivations sinful,” Jefferts Schori said. “It’s decidedly wrong to use resources that have been given into our collective care in ways that diminish the ability of others to share in abundant life,” she added.

“I really hope to motivate average Episcopalians to see the severity of this issue, the morality of this issue,” Jefferts Schori said. “Turning the ship in another direction requires the consolidated efforts of many people who are moving in the same direction.”

Jefferts Schori's moral leadership is timely as we herald the arrival of spring and prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover.

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Stewardship of the Environment

We take a leadership role in our communities. As part of the Anglican Communion, we encourage Anglicans to support sustainable environmental practices as individuals in their daily lives and throughout their communities. Click here for more information about our work.

Mandate

The Stewardship of the Environment Committee is responsible to the Anglican Diocese of Montreal for increasing awareness of our inter-dependence with God's environment and through advice, consultation and support, to foster the improvement of our relationship with the environment.

Within this mandate, the Committee has the following long-term objectives: To provide education and support to the Diocese in developing public positions on environmental issues;

To act as a liaison between the Diocese of Montreal and the National Church on environmental issues;

To act as a liaison between the Diocese of Montreal and civil society and religious organizations that deal with environmental issues;

To assist, with similar groups in other denominations and religions in promoting stewardship of the environment at the municipal, provincial and federal levels; To act as a consultative group to the Diocese and to the parishes on environmental issues; and

To act as a resource group to the parishes of the Diocese in promoting actions within the parish that reduces their impact on the physical environment.

Committee Members

Mr. Richard Matthews, is a former warden at St. Philip's Church. He is the chair and social media coordinator for the Stewardship of the Environment Committee. He spearheaded the fossil fuel divestment motion in the Anglican Diocese of Montreal. He also developed and co-facilitated a course called Ecology and Spirituality. Richard is the owner of The Green Market Oracle and the President of Small Business Consulting (SBC). He is a widely published writer and his articles have appeared in dozens of publications including Scientific American. He has contributed to a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report on the Green Economy in Action. He lives with his wife and two children in Montreal.

Dr. Brooke Struck is a member of St. Philip's Church where he sings in the choir. His doctoral research in philosophy, undertaken at the University of Guelph, focused on the notion of objectivity in science, and how science is related to other forms of cultural practice. He presently works as a science policy analyst at Science-Metrix, a research-program evaluation firm in Montreal. He has previously worked in science policy analysis for Environment Canada, and also co-founded the Philopolis festival series, which provides a space for discussing the intersection between ideas in academic philosophy and present-day issues of society, culture and politics.

Mr. Jeffrey Mackie is the verger and an active member of Christ Church Cathedral. He is an internationally published writer and also hosts a literary program at CKUT. He is also very active politically and currently sits on the Verdun executive of Projet Montreal. In 2012 he ran provincially for the Green Party of Quebec.